It’s difficult to call a drug safe and effective if it ends in the death of another human being’s life 100 percent of the time — and that’s if it works correctly.
But, as it turns it, it’s even worse than that for mifepristone, the abortion pill that Democrats have been loosening restrictions on and now want to ship across state lines in order to circumvent bans or restrictions on ending the life of the unborn in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
According to a study by the Ethics & Public Policy Center — which describes itself as “Washington, D.C.’s premier institute working to apply the riches of the Jewish and Christian traditions to contemporary questions of law, culture, and politics” — complications from pharmaceutical abortions are exponentially more common than the number well under 1 percent that the Food and Drug Administration advertises in medical literature.
“Danco Laboratories markets Mifeprex as ‘the safe and effective abortion pill,’ but our research shows that mifepristone abortion, as currently practiced in the U.S., is not safe and effective,” the group said in a media release Monday.
“The manufacturer and the FDA rely on the results of 10 clinical trials with a total of 30,966 participants, less than 0.5 percent of whom reportedly experienced serious adverse reactions. In contrast, we analyzed real-world insurance claims data for 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions, broadly representative of women who obtain mifepristone abortions in the U.S. today, and we find a serious adverse event rate of 10.93 percent—at least 22 times as high as the summary figure reported on the drug label. In light of this research, we urge the FDA to reinstate earlier, stronger patient safety protocols and reconsider its approval of mifepristone altogether.”
The study was conducted by identifying a mifepristone abortion via either a procedure code on a medical report, a prescription for the drug, or a diagnosis code on medical forms.
The adverse events within 45 days of the mifepristone abortion were then analyzed using the National Institutes of Health Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, or CTCAE, including only Grade 3 (severe) or Grade 4 (life-threatening) events. Grade 1 (mild), Grade 2 (moderate), or Grade 5 (death) were not included.
The study found a serious adverse event rate of nearly 11 percent, as previously stated — although it is worth noting that comparing it to the 0.5 percent listed in the clinical trials may be comparing apples-to-oranges, although that still doesn’t look great for mifepristone.
Should the mifepristone pill be banned for use as an abortifacient?
Why? Well, there were 10 categories of serious adverse events listed, and several women in the study experienced more than one event. Only a few of them seemed to be significantly higher than 0.5 percent: Infection, (1.34 percent), hemorrhage (3.31 percent), repeated surgical abortion (2.84 percent), ER visit related to the abortion (4.73 percent), and other abortion-specific complications (5.68 percent).
The biggest issue is with the last two, as you delve into the methodology of obtaining the numbers of these adverse events. One of the ways? “Other abortion complications include codes specifically related to an abortion or miscarriage, as well as life-threatening mental health diagnoses, etc.” [Emphasis ours.]
Therein lies what’s likely to be the key difference in numbers in adverse events between the clinical trials and this study: Mental health issues probably weren’t viewed as serious adverse reactions in the former.
Furthermore, it’s worth noting that this could involve the same issues that inflated coronavirus deaths, when public health officials lumped together those who died of COVID and those who died with COVID. Were these mental health crises because of a recent mifepristone abortion or mental health crises with a recent mifepristone abortion? The same, too, could be said about any of these categories.
That being said, this is too large of a variance to be explained away simply by lumping together ICD-10 codes and calling it a day; if anything, it puts the lie to the idea that there are no mental health effects from carrying out an abortion — and that “unwanted pregnancies” are the real mental health crisis.
Another caveat: This study was carried out on cases between 2017 and 2023, after the FDA relaxed the gestational age mifepristone could be prescribed until up to 70 days from 49 days. In addition, during the final year of the study, the FDA allowed retail pharmacies to start dispensing the drugs provided they had certification, although it’s unclear whether that would have increased the incidence of side effects.
Still, the results are damning: This isn’t just swallowing a pill or two and, presto, that lump of cells goes away. Many of those visits for hemorrhage were likely from women who didn’t realize killing an unborn baby involved so much blood and went to the emergency room. Then, there are the unspecified visits from women who thought this wouldn’t bring mental anguish but found out they were wrong.
Ultimately, harping on the safety profile of mifepristone can miss the point. Remember, this drug kills 100 percent of the time. That’s its point. Having a debate over the safety of it, for the pro-life contingent, should take a backseat to the real problem, which is the killing of the unborn itself.
That being said, this study marks yet another sign that the abortion culture that’s been sold to us by the left is based upon lie upon lie being piled on top of each other, one by one: a Tower of Babel being erected in honor of Moloch, the god of child sacrifice. This is feminist freedom, apparently: death and ignorance. God help us all.
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